| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Collection of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter: His coat was pulled off, and he was rolled
up in a bundle, and tied with string in very
hard knots.
Anna Maria did the tying. The old rat
watched her and took snuff. When she had
finished, they both sat staring at him with
their mouths open.
"Anna Maria," said the old man rat
(whose name was Samuel Whiskers),--
"Anna Maria, make me a kitten dumpling
roly-poly pudding for my dinner."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: gave it to the man to read. In fact, it was an engraved card of
Judge Pyncheon's with certain pencilled memoranda on the back,
referring to various businesses which it had been his purpose
to transact during the preceding day. It formed a prospective
epitome of the day's history; only that affairs had not turned
out altogether in accordance with the programme. The card must
have been lost from the Judge's vest-pocket in his preliminary
attempt to gain access by the main entrance of the house.
Though well soaked with rain, it was still partially legible.
"Look here; Dixey!" cried the man. "This has something to do
with Judge Pyncheon. See!--here's his name printed on it; and
House of Seven Gables |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: You must know that it is no easy thing for a principle to
become a man's own, unless each day he maintain it and hear it
maintained, as well as work it out in life.
XXXII
What then is the chastisement of those who accept it not? To
be as they are. Is any discontented with being alone? let him be
in solitude. Is any discontented with his parents? let him be a
bad son, and lament. Is any discontented with his children? let
him be a bad father.--"Throw him into prision!"--What prision?--
Where he is already: for he is there against his will; and
wherever a man is against his will, that to him is a prision.
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
